These men live at the dump and always hang around when we are there, even when we finish lunch and are playing with the children. I had never watched them really closely before because the children outnumber us 5:1, so I'm always pretty preoccupied.
But this day as we sat there we witnessed something very disturbing. Leti, a 13 year old girl who always seems to keep us at arms length, walked over towards the edge of the wooden pavilion where her friend was standing and the guys got up and starting making calls at her and eyeing her.
What shocked me, though, was what Leti instinctively did in response. She immediately grabbed her dirtied cotton yellow dress, pulled it in close towards her and backed away from the edge. She saw that Victoria and I witnessed the scene and gave us sort of a defiant smile, keeping up her walls, as to say there was nothing wrong.
I was disgusted. What really occurs at this place? I mean I had considered that there wasn't security in the little shacks of trash these people lived in and that the children seemed to be on their own for much of the day but to witness this?! I felt sick. It just made it so real.
I thought about what I saw that day a lot. I hated those men for being around the kids. They repulsed me. But somewhere in these thoughts God still had a way of interjecting a question- Would I ever marry one of these men?
That's horrible of course I wouldn't marry one of them! Maybe I would be so good as to give them a way out of living at the dump but never, and I mean never, would I choose to live the rest of my life with one of them.
But that's the thing. God did.
He not only chose to free us from the filth we were living in but He chose to be faithful to us, His faithless bride (Ez. 16). To commit to us. To be one with us from that day forth. To have and to hold in sickness and in health for longer than we shall live, for eternity.
So even as I learn to love the unlovable God is gently showing me the depth of His love for me. That I was more unlovable than I even comprehend, yet He saved me and has committed Himself to me forever.
Hosea 2:19-20 And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know The Lord.
